Decorative trim such as, for example, crown mold, has been a popular enhancement to interior rooms of building structures for many years primarily because it tends to lend a more formal appearance to such rooms. In the past, such decorative trim was commonly sculpted in place by highly skilled trimming masons using plasters and other sculptable materials that could be applied wet, manually sculpted to a desired decorative shape and allowed to dry to form the finished trim. While this type of trim was often very ornate and beautiful, its creation obviously required a tremendous amount of effort by what could be entire teams of skilled plaster masons. Sculpted plaster trim thus tends to be extremely expensive and, consequently, is often found only in buildings constructed many years ago.
More recently, modern high speed wood molding machinery has made it possible to produce large quantities of highly ornate molded wooden trim quickly and economically. As a consequence, such wooden trim has become extremely popular and is used almost exclusively in modern construction for trimming out interior rooms of homes and other buildings. Even more recently, some decorative trim has been fabricated of various plastics using modern extrusion techniques. Plastic trim tends to be even more economical than wooden trim and is generally not subject to fluctuations in the supply and cost of lumber.
While molded wooden and extruded plastic trim has generally proven much simpler and less expensive to install than sculpted plaster trims of the past, its installation has nevertheless been plagued with numerous inherent problems and shortcomings that usually make successful installation too difficult for the average homeowner or do-it-yourselfer. Wooden crown mold, for example, is not always easy to orient properly along the top edge of a wall and can easily become cocked or canted, which is unsightly and tends to make it almost impossible to create acceptable corner joints. This is particularly true when the molding is secured to the walls with a hammer and nails since the impact of hammer blows can move and cock the molding as it is secured.
Even when the molding is oriented properly along the wall, creating crisp mitered looking corner joints at molding intersections can be difficult and usually requires the skills of an experienced coping carpenter who meticulously sculpts the ends of intersecting lengths of molding with a small coping saw to fit together and form the joint. Finally, even the joining of two or more lengths of molding to form an extended run along a wall in such a way that the resulting joints are not visible can be a difficult and frustrating task.
As a result of the difficulty of installing molded decorative trim, such installation has typically been beyond the skill of a home owner or "do-it-your-selfer" who must usually employ a professional trimming carpenter for the job. Further, even when installed by professionals, the tedious sizing, joining and coping of corners of the molding can require long hours of effort and, consequently, can be relatively expensive. A continuing and heretofore unaddressed need exists, therefore, for a decorative trimming system that is accurate, simple, quick, inexpensive, and easily applied by the average home owner or do-it-your-selfer. It is to the provision of such a trimming system that the present invention is primarily directed.